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Will Smith is Too Expensive for "Independence Day 2"

German director Roland Emmerich and 20th Century Fox announced that Independence Day 2 now has a release date: July 3, 2015—the same holiday weekend that made the original a blockbuster in 1996. However, the film will be without its star, Will Smith.

"Will Smith can not come back because he's too expensive, but he'd also be too much of a marquee name," Emmerich said. "It would be too much." Smith's asking price is apparelty still too high, even though After Earth had disappointing box office returns and currently has an 11% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Producers said that the Independence Day sequel will be the first of a two-part story, for now titled ID Forever, Part I." Emmerich said that about half of the characters will be new and half will be from the original. Independence Day also starred Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Vivica A. Fox, and Harry Connick, Jr.